Pathway
by Soulreciever
Summary: There comes a point where every man must accept that they are running from their past rather than searching to recall it again... SuSei
1. Seishiro

Pathway.

T: I have wanted to write this fic for a while now mainly because I had a yearning to give Priest Seishiro some back story. It's come to print now rather than later because I've just finished watching episode 24 of Tsubasa and the teaser for 25 has me believing that their going to reveal the Vampire Sumeragi early, thus more than likely ruining all my lovely guess work! I will be using a few random terms here for various things connected to Sei-chan's home world but I'll have a glossary in my end A/N to alleviate confusion! Warning of ANGST, CLIFF HANGER ENDING and SLASH…my usual fair in other words! Stuff in _italic_ is flash back. Not mine, if it was it'd be about priest Sei-chan rather than Shaoran...heh!

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It had been a week since had last eaten, perhaps longer since water had touched his lips and 'Rino' or no his resolve had begun to crumble.

Once or twice he had caught an image of the boy from the corner of his eye, a phantom shade that had passed the moment he turned to look at it properly.

He believed now that an illusion was all he was going to find here in the sands, for there was no cause for them to be out here amid the elements.

No true lure for ones such as them.

However, the ones he had talked to had seemed so sure and even the great power of the feather seemed unable to boost his own magical reserve enough that he was prepared should he find the boy in the next world.

Thus he continued to walk the desert, hopeful that the rumours would prove true and that he would find life here amid the sands…

Would find him.

Yet once he was again face to face with the boy what would be his next action?

He had thought for the first years of the hunt that he would do as was his duty and kill the boy and yet…

Had it not also once been his duty to protect the child? To hold him safe against the dangers of their world so that he could grow and rise into the position of 'Gina'?

It was a conflict that might have proved easier if he had maintained the necessary distance between his charge and himself.

Yet there has been a purity to the boy that was intoxicating, a purity that would lend well to the task destined for him and which had pulled at his heart until he had fallen for the boy.

_"You have been so very quiet of late, Seishrio-san…have I offended you in any way?" Those precious emeralds were sad and smiling to ease that sadness he replied,_

_"You are to be Gina, majesty, and thus I have no right to be 'offended' by your words."_

_"I have told you before that I have no want to be 'majesty' in your eyes, Seishiro-san._

_"My grandmother is strong and it shall be many years until I have need to become the protector and the ruler of this world._

_"Thus if I have caused you offence I wish you to tell me."_

_"It is not that you have offended me, Subaru-kun, rather that I have been attempting to place again a suitable distance between us._

_"Of late I have begun to feel all too much towards you." The boy smiles at that, pulling him down for a strong kiss before informing him,_

_"Good, because I love you, Seishiro-san and it does me good to know that you care in the same way."_

He can see the boy still in his minds eye, dressed in the deep violets of his position and baring the odd golden cross, the symbol of his bloodline, about his neck.

Seven long years they had had together, the boy growing into a handsome man and he learning to let go his fears and his inhibitions…

Then, without warning, the boy had been gone from his side and he had been left with nothing but the boy's cross and the angry words of the current Gina,

_"You allowed your sentimentality and your emotion to cloud your mind and slow your judgement and for that your charge has been taken by **them**…_

_"You must find him and do as you have been trained, Rino, then you shall bring his body back to me so that it can be purified and his soul allowed to ascend at last."_

Thus had begun his journey, firstly on foot and then by dimensional travel.

He had feared that the witch would request the cross of him…indeed her eyes had fallen to that item almost the moment he had entered her home and yet…

_"Two things do you value beyond everything and though I could request both of you I shall not._

_"Instead I shall request only the payment of your right eye."_

He raises his hand to his blind side and touching his false eye he allows another recollection to take him.

_His mother stands silent at his side, pride clear in her eyes as he is presented with the small boy who shall be his charge._

_He is only seven, and yet already there is a unique light in his eyes that shall make him great when his time comes._

_"Today you shall be bound by your right eye to the person who shall be as your very existence, Seishiro and once that is done I shall leave your side forever, for there shall be nothing else that I can teach you."_

_"Goodbye, Kasan." He remarks before the cool hands of the Gina grasp hard onto his head._

_There is a sharp pain in his right eye and then he can feel the anxiety of the boy before him…can feel the steady thrum of his heart and the soft curiosity of the boy regarding himself._

If he concentrates he can still feel what it was to know always that the child was safe and on occasion could even hear the child's thought.

Sometimes he believes this sensation is real, that though the anchor of their binding had been severed, the spell lingered still…

Sometimes, in the very dead of night, he recalls the moment that the boy had changed…recalls the intense chill that had settled over him even thought they had been so very far apart.

He knows that should he wish he could erase this recollection from his mind and yet he has not, it is part of his punishment for letting the boy go, after all.

He catches a shape in the corner of his seeing eye and turning he is met again with the lifeless desert.

Steaming his disappointment he turns his mind back again to the thought at hand.

He had been searching for the boy to kill him until the moment he met Shaoran…afterwards…

Shaoran had recalled the other to him with such vividness that for the briefest instant he had believed his search at last at an end.

Then his mind had reminded him that the boy was no longer as such, that the one he hunted was older, both in appearance and in actual years.

It was something he tried to recall as little as possible, for he had not begun to truly love the boy until he was all but a man, thus to hunt the boy was as less of a pain than to hunt the man.

Even after recalling this Shaoran had continued to remind him of the boy and it had been that, rather than anything else, that had prompted him to teach the other to fight.

This he had also tried to do for his charge and yet the young prince had had no want to learn anything other than the defensive art and had all but turned translucent when he had suggested that the boy learned of distancing himself.

_"It is well that you have something to server away your emotions, Seishiro-san, indeed it is a comfort to me that you require still such a token and yet…_

_"I can not bare the thought of being responsible for another's pain, enemy or no and the guilt that would assail me after I removed the blocking item would be enough to destroy me."_

Shaoran, however, had listened carefully to his words as he told him of the blocking spell and its purpose, had even gone as far as to enquire as to whether it was possible to create such a spell within oneself and thus remove the need of an item to hold the spell within.

It had been that question…that subtle difference…that had made him re-consider his reason for searching out the boy.

He cared too much for the young prince and his feelings on the matter that simply killing him would not be a thing of ease.

Indeed by the time he met Shaoran again he thought not of killing the boy, but simply of finding him.

Now after the passing of weeks…months or perhaps years, he wished only to return home and find the affair some horrible nightmare.

Yet even that was impossible.

He feels his body waver and he allows himself to fall, too weak now to fight against the inevitability of his death here in the lifelessness of the desert.

The truth was that he had stopped hoping to find the boy at least two worlds ago and that now he thought only of running from the nightmare than had come from his own foolish mistake.

It had been the boy's tears that had been his downfall, that much he marked well still in his mind.

_The tears threaten so clearly in his loves eyes that he can not help but pull the man close and murmur gentle nothings._

_"Neesan was taken by **them**, Seishiro…I have to cross the border, have to try and bring her back before it becomes too late and she is lost to me."_

_"Subaru, to cross over the border into the Vampire realm is death itself and though it is well to grieve your sister you can not do this thing…for this nations future is on your shoulders."_

_"Would you have me let her suffer simply because of my duty, Seishrio?"_

_"No, love, yet you must understand why I say these things."_

_"Yes, of course. In turn you must understand that I **have** to go."_

_"Let me come with you then."_

_"No! If I loose you both it shall kill me. Do not worry, the blood of my ancestors shall protect me and…" He removes the cross from about his neck, "The knowledge that you await me shall be as a light within the shadows of **their** world._

_"Guard this well, Seishiro and I promise that I shall return to claim it again."_

He grabs the cross hard into his hands and a bitter curse on his lips he fling it far from himself.

It lands with a soft thump and that is the last sound that he hears before he falls into darkness.

When he again awakes he is wrapped beneath soft covers and a hand is gently bathing his head in chilled water.

He hears Shaoran's voice and that stirs him completely from his lull.

There is a shadow in the boy's eyes that tells that his journey had been hard and yet he is smiling still.

"Shaoran?" He enquires; still not quiet believing himself truly awake.

"Ah, so you are awake at last."

"Why are you here? Indeed why are you helping me?"

The boy moves then, taking the cloth from a woman, this someone that Seishiro does not recognise, though he can not shake the belief that he should, and settles down at his blind side

"You have not done me any true harm, Seishiro-san and as to why I am here…this is my home now."

"Then your journey is at an end?"

"Yes, I have collected all but one of the princesses' feathers."

"I still can not bestow you that feather, Shaoran, for I still have not found the two that I have been looking for."

"Seishiro-san…I did not find you in the desert, instead a man brought you to me.

"He was very handsome and I could see through his eyes that he loved you dearly.

"He smiled and passing you to me he said,

'Tell him to stop…tell him that I am beyond saving and that I will now be unable to keep my promise.' Then he passed me this…" Shaoran informs him as he passes the cross back into his keeping.

"So he was here, after all."

"Yes."

He hugs the thing close to his heart and smiles just slightly,

"I can not stop."

Shaoran moves back into his line of sight, a neutral expression schooled onto his face,

"He told me that you might say that and to inform you that he shall wait for you at the ruins at the edge of our town.

"Asked me to request that you give over the power of the feather for it hurts him so."

"I would say that you are lying to me, that you tell me these things to gain your precious possession and yet…

"I do not believe you are capable of such a thing." He remarks as he pushes himself out of bed and back onto his feet.

He lets go the energy of the feather but does not linger to see if its restoration to the princess shall prove as a positive or a negative for Shaoran.

Rather he crosses out into the sand strewn streets, his seeing eye searching for and finding the ruins that Shaoran had spoken of.

He hesitates a moment, unsure still of what he wishes of the boy and then he moves…

Let fate decide what this meeting shall be.

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T: I may randomly write a Subaru version of this but I promise nothing as it depends on how nice Clamp are with episode 25! Errr…will get to the glossary in a moment I just wanted to say that…yes I am aware that Sei-chan is not bearing the cross when first he meets Shaoran, let us assume he's hiding it for whatever reason! Also in regard to the cross, yep I know it bears the Sakurazukamori mark (Inverse pentagram) and yet it made sense for it to be something of Subaru's, perhaps a representation of the fact that his family line was not afraid to battle evil or something like that! Also I liked the concept of those glasses being a magical aid of some sort, hence Shaoran remarking 'He's serious' when he sees Sei-chan wearing them…it fit as Sei-chan's right eye was as a binding between himself and Subaru. Shaoran's planet is a huge thing, most likely mainly desert thus it is more than likely that Sei-chan could walk for days without hitting upon anyone else. Right to the glossary….

Gina: Almost like a king/Queen but they hold also a responsibility to protect their kingdom from the darker aspects of their world…so kind of an Onmyoji/ Ruler crossover.

Rino: Think Suoh with magic and attitude…kind of a Suoh/ Sakurazukamori high bread…shudder I never ever want to write those two together with a slash between them again!

R+R I need the encouragement!


	2. Subaru

Pathway.

T: Because everyone who's reviewed has asked for it and because episode 25 did not feature Vampire Sumeragi, I give you the Subaru version of Pathway. Warnings of ANGST and this chapter has a little more SLASH than the last! I do not own Tsubasa, something you can tell for a witty reason that I'll think of later!

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His father has 'died;' a week before he had been born and but a week after his mother had also fallen.

Their 'deaths' had been as an ending to his childhood and had set into motion a string of events that would end with him sharing their fate.

He had met them since his own 'death' and seeing their twisted, empty, husks had killed the little had that he had felt still towards them.

His grandmother had been his tutor, his friend and family for the first few years of his life and, apart from the occasional visit with his sister, his only source of company.

Thus when she had told him that she had found him a Rino, he has been both apprehensive and terribly excited.

It had helped that the one who he was to be bound to was littler more than a child himself and yet still he could not but help feel a little unsure of such an everlasting contract.

Then the connection had been made and suddenly there was warmth in his heart and a smile again on his lips.

But he was Gina and the one that he had been bound to…whom he had eventually fallen in love with….was Rino.

Their positions in life and their duties had been as barriers for their love.

And yet…

Somehow duty and destiny had not mattered and for a little while he had fallen into heaven.

Then **they** had taken his sister and he's chosen to stop ignoring their presence…

Chosen to fight back.

At least that had been the thought that had sent him across the border into their lands, his one sure protection handed to his love in a hasty ploy to keep him safe on their side of the border.

It had not, he realised now, been the complete truth.

Of course he had want to save his twin sister from the fate of their parents, but he had also wished to rebel.

In the end it had been the wish to cast off his grandmother's oppression and steer a new course for his life that had set him into that danger.

The logic, if such a thing could truly be called 'logic', had been that he might be able to somehow destroy the **creatures** and set his city free…

Set himself free.

It had been stupid and yet he had almost succeeded…had almost had in his hands the source of their power and then, ironically, his sister had raised the alarm.

He had been damned by the very person he had attempted to save.

Of course he had not understood then that he would never have been able to get Hokuto back, had not understood that she had submitted, willingly, to the curse.

It had been one of the things that he had discovered after they had killed him and he had become, in part, on of theirs…one of the things that he had used to amuse himself as they had skipped from world to world.

At first he had remained with the main group, fleeing, as the rest, from the one who hunted them.

Then he had learned who it was that was chasing them and he had split away from them with the intent of seeing his love one last time.

He had watched, in the shadows, as his love had given over his right eye in order to gain the power to see him again…

Had felt his world crumble as he had heard his love say why he was searching for him and again when that connection had been severed.

He had fled then, tears still in his eyes and the bitter memory of the happier times haunting him.

He had moved slowly, after that, lingering in each world to spread rumour and to keep his love off of his tale.

Had learned, slowly, to hide away his heart and the weakness that was contained within it.

Then their paths had crossed again.

He had watched him walking the desert, unsure if he should give himself over or remain still hidden from the other.

Then his love had cast away an object that, once he had it in his hands, he had recognised as his cross.

He had looked at the thing and known that his love had not meant the words that he had spoken to the Dimensional Witch.

Then he had come to the side of his love and tasted again the sweetness of his lips before he had taken him into his arms.

As he crossed into the town he had heard a voice cry out his love's name and he had looked to see a boy so much like his younger self that it had hurt a little.

"Do you know this man?" He enquired to the boy.

"Yes…please what is the matter with him?"

"He has been walking a great while in the desert."

"Then we must help him."

"I can not." He responds as he passes his love to the boy.

The child stops him when he moves to turn away and enquires,

"Are you Subaru?"

He is startled for the sound of his name at a stranger's lips and yet still he replies,

"Yes."

The boy smiles and informs him,

"He has been looking for you."

"I know and yet I can not let him find me."

"Then what shall I tell him?"

"If you must say anything of me then I beg that you ask him to stop…that you tell him that I am now beyond saving and will now be unable to keep my promise." He passes his cross to the boy and the child takes it before he responds,

"He shall not stop."

"I know and if he should tell you that…if he should seem to mean it with the whole heart of him…then tell him I shall wait for him at those ruins." He remarks as he points to the buildings. "Ask him also to let go whatever foreign power he is holding to for it cuts me." He remarks as he gestures to the cuts upon his skin.

The boy leaves him then and he goes to stand in the shade of the ruins, hoping, beyond hope, that his heart will prove true.

He hears footsteps behind him just as the sun is fading and he turns to face his love with his monsters face,

"If you have the intent of killing me then I ask that you do so now while I bare this face."

"Why should I wish to kill you, Subaru, when you are as a part of me?"

"No longer, for you severed the link between us when you sacrificed that eye."

"True and yet I feel you still here." He remarks as he presses a hand to his heart.

"It does not matter, Seishiro. I am a vampire now and though I may not have fallen completely into the thrall of **their** power I must still feed to survive.

"Do you understand what that means? I have killed many people, Seishiro… so many people, all simply for my survival."

"I can not but help wonder if those you have slain did, in fact, deserve such a death, for you are too kind to have killed innocents."

"I was too kind, Seishiro. Surely you have read the many history tomes written on myself and Hokuto…on our insatiable thirst for blood."

"I have and I can not now believe them truth."

"Why?"

"Because your sister is not here with you, Subaru."

"That is because I killed her."

Seishiro regards him a moment and then he smiles one of his rare, genuine, smiles,

"If you are as you say then take my blood, Subaru.

"I am Rino still despite our location and thus my blood contains a great magical gift that would be of an asset to you."

"Why do you offer me this thing?"

"Because I love you, Subaru and I am willing to sacrifice anything to keep you strong."

"You can not save me, Seishiro, at least not in that way that you would wish."

"You are stalling, Subaru. If you are truly as you claim then there should be no need for such things."

"And what if I am not the murder I have claimed to be? What difference does it make that the blood which stains my hands is tainted as my own?

"I can not now go back, Seishiro, for all that I was is dead…"

"But if the power source was destroyed there is a hope that you would be returned to normal."

"That 'hope' is little more than fiction, Seishiro, a legend without basis. The dead do not come back to life and make no mistake, I am dead."

He regards him a moment in silence and then he closes the distance between them, his lips tangling into his own and his hands grasping to him as though he is drowning.

Pressed so tightly to him he can hear the thrum of his heart and feels the temptation swamp him.

What harm could one bite do?

He feels his fangs lengthening…feels the monster inside him gaining control and he pulls away.

"Don't you understand that I'm loosing control? At the moment I am destroying dirty lives…stealing from those who have, themselves, stolen and yet…

"Sooner or later I will get hungry in a village full only of innocents and then that shall change.

"I can not be responsible for such a thing, Seishiro…I will not."

"If the legend of our world proved true…if you could be saved…"

"Dimensional travel is uncertain, this you know, Seishiro.

"What if we never get home? What if we reach our planet just when the hunger gets too much?"

"Subaru, I have been travelling a long while searching for you without much hope of seeing you again.

"Yet still I searched and here you are…" He brings him again into a kiss and this time he relaxes into it…his passion now purely human.

"So are you willing to take the chance?" Seishiro enquires one they have separated themselves from one another.

"Yes, but you must promise me one thing."

"Name it."

"If we do not get home in time or if I am too much a monster when we arrive, you will kill me."

"You are serious?"

"Yes, for I would rather it you than anyone else."

"Then I promise, for I too would rather it myself than anyone else."

He takes his hand and for the briefest moment Subaru can feel the heat of their bond again…

Feels alive.

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T: As you can see I've created my own unique spin on the Vampire curse…basically the logic here is that you only become a full vampire if you had want for the curse, otherwise you become a sort of in between creature and the curse attacks you little by little until you cave. Hokuto wished to become a vampire because the one that she loved (Kakyo, just to keep the theme) was a vampire.

Apparently these strange vampire's are also controlled by some mysterious power source…one that, when destroyed, may bring back those in between vampires. Taking into account the unpredictability of legends, however, the destruction of the device might also save these in betweenies by letting them die at last.

Really I should write another chapter to deal with what the outcome of the legend is but its more fun to leave you guessing! R+R as I may just be swayed!


	3. Home

Home. 

T: Because one enthusiastic review is more than enough to get this girl going and because I thought of something evil to do with this chapter I bring you the third and most defiantly final part of Pathway. Warnings remain the same as does the terminology and I am not a member of Clamp, Sadly!

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The journey had been hard, for sometimes it would be two or three worlds until Subaru found one who he believed truly deserving of becoming his meal and sometimes there would be so many that Subaru would gorge himself and the monster would gain a little more control.

Yet every night they slept curled in one another's arms and that warmth…that oneness…was enough to make these difficulties as trivialities.

This world was proving the hardest, not because of hunger or the encroaching threat of the monster but rather because of he that they had met here.

From time to time while Seishiro had travelled on his own he had met other versions of himself, each just that little bit different to himself that it had become clear that they shared only one constant.

Subaru.

Every time he had sat and listened to another version of himself talk of the one he was searching for he had felt so very tempted to ask to meet them…to look into their eyes and find clarity for his mission.

Each time he had resisted the temptation, aware always that these other Subaru's were not his own and that if he looked into their eyes he might find himself compelled to steal them away from their Seishiro and make them his.

Yet as he had stumbled out of the dimensional portal and into this world he had come face to face with another version of Subaru.

This other had looked at him with such disbelief and had taken a step towards him before his Subaru had come through the portal.

The other Subaru had regarded his Subaru a moment and then promptly fainted.

His Subaru had insisted that they take him somewhere safe and thus he was sat now in a cheep hotel room waiting for this other Subaru to recover.

There is a faint cry from the other and then he is looking again into his eyes…the left the familiar green while the right…this Subaru's right eye is the same hazel brown as his own.

"Seishrio..." The way that this Subaru utters his name is so soft and so full of pain that it hurts him a little to hear it. "Are you real?" He enquires, one of his fine fingered hands rising to touch his face.

"Yes."

A momentary pause and then the enquiry of,

"Do you love him?"

"I am sorry?"

"The one that I saw you with on the roof…the one without a soul…do you love him?"

"Yes."

The other Subaru smiles a little then and lowering his hand to press it against his one brown eye he enquires,

"Will you ask him to come and talk to me? There is much I would hear from him and much that he should hear from me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes…as long as I do not try to touch him with my power I should not faint again."

He wishes to ask about that power and about his right eye and yet he knows that the other will not tell him…that these things are one of the many secrets that this Subaru will impart to the other.

Thus he gains his feet and stepping out into the hallway he catches his loves eyes in his own,

"He is awake and he has asked to see you."

His love nods and moves to pass through into the bedroom, this action stopped as Seishiro takes a gentle hold of his wrist.

"He may look like you, Subaru and yet he is not. You are the one that I was bound to...the one that I love."

"I know." The other responds before he breaks the contact and passes, at last, through the doorway.

………………………………………………………………………………….

"Firstly to save us confusion you can think of me as Sakurazukamori." The other world Subaru remarks as he comes to sit at his side. "Secondly I would ask as to what you are, for when I touched you with my magic I felt nothing."

"I am a vampire…do you have such things on your world or would you care for an explanation?"

"They are mentioned a little within our legends…is Seishiro a Vampire also?"

"No, in fact he is mean to hunt them but…"

"But he loves you." Sakurazukamori remarks before he informs him, "You are very lucky."

"Because he loves me?"

"Because you know it to be as such without doubt."

He is very much aware that Sakurazukamori is dangerous, the power within his blood strong enough that he can feel the monster within himself pushing for control and yet he knows that they can not always dance around the more painful aspects of their pasts…knows that one of them must risk if they are to get anywhere.

"What happened to him?" He enquires and Sakurazukamori stills before he replies,

"I killed him."

"Why?"

Sakurazukamori gives his tale from the very beginning and he listens with a little pity and a great deal of disbelief.

He could never believe that any Seishiro could be capable of such heartlessness and yet the pain in Sakurazukamori's words is enough that he knows this to be truth...knows that there must be a darkness such as this hidden somewhere within the man he loved.

"As he died he told me that he loved me and later I was told that he had left this eye for me and yet…"

"He had hurt you enough by then that you could not be sure if the words were truth or another part of his game."

"Yes."

"Then I will tell you something that may, perhaps, lend you a little comfort. The different versions of Sumeragi Subaru have grown in different ways and become very different people and yet at their heart they are the same, for all of them love or will love Sakurazuka Seishrio.

"It is the one constant…for no matter situation or destiny the heart never changes."

"You mean that as your Seishiro loves you, mine must have loved me?"

"Yes."

Sakurazuka looks happier at that and he tells him his story…tells him of how much he had loved Seishiro and how his sister had come, for a while between that love.

"But he kept searching for me…kept believing that he would find me and here we are."

"If my Seishiro felt that way about me then why did he die? Why did he throw it all away? We could have been so happy…so very happy…"

"I could not tell you defiantly, Sakurazuka, for what motivates my Seishrio might not have motivated yours."

"I think I would like to get some sleep now…will you stay here tonight?"

"Of course, but we will have to leave tomorrow…I can not linger too long in one place."

Seishiro is waiting for him as he steps out of the room and he pulls him as close as he can before he begins to cry.

"It is all so cruel…he is so lonely, so very lonely and the only one who could take that loneliness away is gone."

He brushes the tears from his eyes and he kisses him thoroughly before he informs him,

"We can not let ourselves get involved, love. He needs to live his own life…however cruel that life may be.

"Now are we staying tonight or…?"

"I promised him I would be here tomorrow…I owe him that much."

"Then let us find some spare bedding, shall we?"

He stirs long before his normal and he has only to turn a little in Seishiro's arms to know why.

Sakurazuka is stood in the doorway of the bedroom, his eyes focused on the pair of them and his hands covered in blood.

Wrenching himself as gently as he can from Seishiro's arms he grabs a hold of Sakurazuka and takes him onto the roof of the hotel.

"You did not tell me that you were doing his job…that you were killing innocents…"

"Why should it matter to one such as you? Their deaths are your life…their blood your freedom."

"I have never claimed an innocent life…to do as such would make me no better than those who made me as I am…would make me no better than a monster."

"What if the only way to keep him with you was to take innocent lives? What would you do then?"

"Even if it was the only way I could be with him I would not do it..."

There is a sharp crack as Sakurazuka strikes him and he can feel the warmth of the blood on his face…can feel his darker self swamping him.

"How dare you say such a thing? How dare you even judge me! You have him and he will not ever let you go! If you had lived my life…if you knew how much pain I am in…then you would understand.

"Then you would see why I am willing to do anything to have him with me!"

"I feel your pain very well and if I thought that it would make you happy I would let you have him…would let you take my happiness away…"

"Why?"

"Because you deserve it more than I ever could! Because you have suffered so much…so very much."

"Yes… but that does not matter. I shall not take him away from you, Subaru. One of us deserves to be truly happy, after all." He remarks before he jumps off of the roof and away into the horizon.

……………………………………………………………………………

Subaru has been so very quiet since they encountered his other self on that world, but he does not probe, aware that he shall be told if Subaru believes there is a need.

He mumbles a little in his sleep now also and always when this happens he hugs him hard and whispers to him of the life they will have once they are home until Subaru stills and he can join him in sleep.

They come to their home world almost as it becomes too late and praising their luck Seishiro goes to the castle to report in.

The Gina listens to his proposal with doubt in her eyes and yet, unlike Subaru she does not question his drive or whether this shall work, she merely shakes her head and informs him,

"If you fail you must promise me that you shall kill him, no matter how much it will hurt you."

"Such a thing I have already promised Subaru, majesty and I gladly promise as such again."

"Then go, Rino, for our nations hopes lie on your shoulders."

All of the Vampires, but for the two that guard the power source, have either been slain at his hand or had fled before he came in search of Subaru, thus it is but the mere work of moments before they are stood before the power source itself.

It is nothing more than a simple stone and yet the power that pulses from it is strong enough that his head begins to throb as he closes upon it.

Taking a moment to offer a silent prayer to whoever might be listening he takes the stone into his hands and, with his skin burning for the touch, he throws it to the floor.

Subaru cries out and he falls to the floor, his skin pulsing with a black light a moment before he is violently ill.

"Subaru?"

He begins to laugh a bright true laughter and wobbling to his feet he catches Seishrio into his arms,

"It is over!" He remarks before he faints.

Seishiro kisses his forehead and allows himself a small smile before replying,

"Yes, love, at last it is over."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

T: The obligatory happy ending! No I don't know why X Subaru appeared in this fic…I was simply thinking of what I might be able to put in a third chapter and bing…there he was! Please note that this has not been inked first as is my normal habit and thus it hasn't had time for me to go away and think about it. Thus it may be a little rough around the edges and apologise for that fact! R+R just because!


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